“If I want to deprive you of your watch, I shall certainly have to fight for it; if I want to buy your watch, I shall have to pay for it; and if I want a gift, I shall have to plead for it; and, according to the means I employ, the watch is stolen property, my own property, or a donation. Thus we see three different results from three different means. Will you still say that the means do not matter?”
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Probable attribution
This saying is widely associated with Mahatma Gandhi, but the attribution is not supported by a reliable primary source.
Likely origin: Attributed to Gandhi; the watch/means analogy is in his writing on means and ends (cf. Hind Swaraj, 1909, ch. XVI 'Brute Force'). Compiled in Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha).
About this quote
The same thing can be taken by force, paid for, or freely given — and what sets those apart isn't the thing but how you came by it. Method is no detail to skip past on the way to a goal; it stamps its character onto the result. Reach it wrongly and you hold something different entirely.
When to use it
- Winning a promotion on merit versus getting it by quietly sabotaging a rival.
- Settling an argument by honest persuasion rather than by twisting the facts.
- Coming by money through earning it, borrowing it, or lifting it from a till.